I am now in my 23rd month in Jakarta and it is time to start winding down and preparing to head off for my next assignment. That means not only doing my day job, but also making sure that I have all my stuff ready to be packed, all my records in hand, bills paid, training plans in order, Home Leave arranged, and plane tickets booked to return to the states. It's also time to reflect on all that I have learned and all that I have gone through.
The memory of my first moment on the ground in Jakarta is indelibly burned into my nose and my brain. The feel of the damp air, the moist heat of tropical humidity, and the smell of cloves and jet fuel. Walking into my first apartment and seeing the tiny little Christmas tree my sponsor had bought so my my girls could have a tree. The first day that I walked across eight lanes of the worst, most polluted traffic I had ever seen in order to get to work. The torrential downpour that soaked me through as I walked home. The first, tentative words I would try and use with the taxi drivers to try and get somewhere. My girls learning a new culture and starting in new schools in an alien world.
Learning my job as a First Tour Officer while having to run a major operation in the embassy, hiring, firing, reprimanding, and generally handling most or all of the day-to-day decisions that go into the personnel operations in a Mission as large as Indonesia. Meeting new people, working with people I only get to meet over the phone. It is truly amazing to me, all the things that go into running an embassy, and I ended up involved in a lot of them. Decisions on travel, assignments, pay, health care, and policies that will affect the Mission for years to come.
Along the way there was my separation and the end to 20 years of marriage, coupled with an opportunity to spend six months with my oldest daughter, just her and I. An amazing time that I will treasure forever. The pain of being away from my twins, and then the eventual return of my oldest to the states to live with her mother. From there, the beginning of a new relationship filled with joy.
And then there are the feelings of loneliness,of being away from family and friends. After 13 years in Oregon, I had made many lasting friendships and now I had to learn how to maintain them while on the other side of the world. Other friendships became challenging, mostly because of the divorce and new relationship, but I am confident that all will smooth itself out and go back to a new version of normal that will be better and stronger than ever before.
These past two years have been filled with nothing but change and challenge, and I am the strongest I have ever been. I have grown, been beaten up, fallen down, gotten back up, and continued to step forward into this bright future. In a few short weeks I will get on a plane to travel back across the Pacific for the last time for at least a few years, and I am looking forward to all that is in front of me.
I move forward with confidence and joy, knowing all is well in my future.
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Motorcades Don't Organize Themselves
Ever see a motorcade going down the street and wonder how it works? After, that is, getting over your frustration at being stopped until it passed. Well, prepare to be educated.
Motorcades do not spontaneously create themselves, but are formed through a great deal of work and stress, and there are an amazing array of things that can go wrong at any point in the process.
- First, you need a logistics person to figure out what vehicles are needed, where the motorcade will go, and how it will get there.
- Second, you need to know how many people are riding in the cars, what their job is, and what car each will sit in.
- Third, you need the cars, with drivers who are capable of listening without imposing their own thoughts on what they are doing. It doesn't matter if they actually know better, they just need to listen and follow instructions.
- Fourth, you need to arrange for all the police to assist with riding in front of and behind the motorcade, to insure that cross streets, stop lights, and stop signs can be gone through without slowing.
-Fifth, you need some poor sap to ride near the back of the train who is in charge of getting the cars lined up correctly, and to keep an eye on the whole process while it drives along. When everyone arrives at the final destination, it is also this person's responsibility to keep the whole thing together in case some over-eager traffic cop decides to tell a driver in the middle of the motorcade to go somewhere they should not go.
In six days of managing a motorcade, that consisted of anywhere from 15 to 35 vehicles, had 20+ total movements, as many as three Very Very Important Persons in any one movement, and only about half of the movements went as planned. Not only were we contending with up to 40 other motorcades and a dozen other governments, there were a number of logistics challenges with local communication. At one point I had to jump out of my vehicle and sprint after another one that was several cars forward of me. in another instance I was forced to jump into a moving vehicle in order to insure that the group stayed together and another motorcade didn't get into the middle of mine. From having heated words with police and armed soldiers, to apologizing to others for those same strong words, it was an exercise in never-ending chaos. Possibly the most memorable move was when we had to park the majority of the package in a scrub forest with cattle roaming around because there was no street parking within 500 Meters of the drop zone.
All-in-all, the best lessons I learned was that no matter what the cost, get radios for every car, and make sure that the drivers understand from the beginning that they are to ONLY listen to the officers in charge of the motorcade and not pay attention to any other instructions. Unless they point guns at you, and then you can listen.
Motorcades do not spontaneously create themselves, but are formed through a great deal of work and stress, and there are an amazing array of things that can go wrong at any point in the process.
- First, you need a logistics person to figure out what vehicles are needed, where the motorcade will go, and how it will get there.
- Second, you need to know how many people are riding in the cars, what their job is, and what car each will sit in.
- Third, you need the cars, with drivers who are capable of listening without imposing their own thoughts on what they are doing. It doesn't matter if they actually know better, they just need to listen and follow instructions.
- Fourth, you need to arrange for all the police to assist with riding in front of and behind the motorcade, to insure that cross streets, stop lights, and stop signs can be gone through without slowing.
-Fifth, you need some poor sap to ride near the back of the train who is in charge of getting the cars lined up correctly, and to keep an eye on the whole process while it drives along. When everyone arrives at the final destination, it is also this person's responsibility to keep the whole thing together in case some over-eager traffic cop decides to tell a driver in the middle of the motorcade to go somewhere they should not go.
In six days of managing a motorcade, that consisted of anywhere from 15 to 35 vehicles, had 20+ total movements, as many as three Very Very Important Persons in any one movement, and only about half of the movements went as planned. Not only were we contending with up to 40 other motorcades and a dozen other governments, there were a number of logistics challenges with local communication. At one point I had to jump out of my vehicle and sprint after another one that was several cars forward of me. in another instance I was forced to jump into a moving vehicle in order to insure that the group stayed together and another motorcade didn't get into the middle of mine. From having heated words with police and armed soldiers, to apologizing to others for those same strong words, it was an exercise in never-ending chaos. Possibly the most memorable move was when we had to park the majority of the package in a scrub forest with cattle roaming around because there was no street parking within 500 Meters of the drop zone.
All-in-all, the best lessons I learned was that no matter what the cost, get radios for every car, and make sure that the drivers understand from the beginning that they are to ONLY listen to the officers in charge of the motorcade and not pay attention to any other instructions. Unless they point guns at you, and then you can listen.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
So I think I am back...
It's hard to believe how long it has been since I last posted anything, and a lot has happened in that time. So while this blog is about the major changes that happened when I turned 40, the hardest changes have been since then. I'm not complaining, I'm happier now than I have been in a very long time and the world is a brighter place because of it.
Frankly, there is so much that has happened that I am going to skip right past it all and focus on what is most recent and in the immediate future. Yes, that might disappoint a few people but oh well. :)
Last weekend I finally got to spend some time in Singapore, outside of the airport. It is amazing how big the differences are between different countries in Asia, despite no real distance between them. Singapore is certainly the most rigidly controlled, yet best organized city I have been to recently. The roads a perfect, there is good traffic control, and well developed public transportation. Kuala Lumpur, in comparison, is moving in that direction yet still has a ways to go, but is pushing hard to get there. Jakarta, in contrast, has a massive distance to cover and will not get there anytime soon without some significant social and political changes. While some of the roads here are decent, they are few and far between and end up being thoroughly messed up by the intersections with the tiny goat-path sized roads along their lengths. You can tell a lot about a city by the way it handles its infrastructure.
Singapore is not a place to travel if you are looking for anything truly inexpensive. Much of what you might think of as cheap tourist stuff is much more expensive in Singapore than it is in Indonesia or in Malaysia. That isn't to say that you can't get Singapore-specific swag for cheap prices, but if you want to find low-cost mementos, don't plan on a shopping trip in Singapore. That said, there was some great stuff to be found anyways with a few notable locations to visit. Chinatown is one location for some fun shopping and good eats, but beware, what you think might be a simple lunch can easily climb close to $100 US. What I saw of Little India didn't have all that much to recommend it, but Haji Lane is a wonderfully kitchy/hipster place for those looking to find something more unique or special.
We visited the Art Science Museum while we were there too, and were lucky enough to see three different traveling exhibits. First was a display of 50 of the best National Geographic photos ever taken. From the girl in Afghanistan to Jane Goodall, the photos were enlarged and well curated to display them without interference from other photos. Second, was a mummy exhibit on loan from the British Museum of National History. Again, the exhibit was well curated and took visitors on a trip through the mummification process and showed a very good 3D movie of CT scans of the mummy. Finally, and surprisingly our favorite exhibit, was a wonderful display on the works of Charles and Ray Eames. From their early days before being married, through the end of their lives, the exhibit showed many of the different items they created. The famous Eames Chair. The Eames Deck of Cards and the Hang Everything. Some of the different houses they built, and a few of the movies they made. All in the service of their vision and process. All-in-all, it was inspiring and educational, without being in the slightest bit boring or tedious.
Looking forward, I am now less than 80 days from leaving Indonesia and preparing or my next assignment. It has been a tour filled with joy and laughter, tears and sorrow, victories and failures, and a whole hell of a lot of learning. I am not the same person that arrived here in 2011, and I am thankful for that. I have a clearer vision of who I am and what I want, and my goals for the next few years of my life are clearer. My life has even bigger changes in store for me, more great adventures, and further opportunities for me to dance across the world.
Frankly, there is so much that has happened that I am going to skip right past it all and focus on what is most recent and in the immediate future. Yes, that might disappoint a few people but oh well. :)
Last weekend I finally got to spend some time in Singapore, outside of the airport. It is amazing how big the differences are between different countries in Asia, despite no real distance between them. Singapore is certainly the most rigidly controlled, yet best organized city I have been to recently. The roads a perfect, there is good traffic control, and well developed public transportation. Kuala Lumpur, in comparison, is moving in that direction yet still has a ways to go, but is pushing hard to get there. Jakarta, in contrast, has a massive distance to cover and will not get there anytime soon without some significant social and political changes. While some of the roads here are decent, they are few and far between and end up being thoroughly messed up by the intersections with the tiny goat-path sized roads along their lengths. You can tell a lot about a city by the way it handles its infrastructure.
Singapore is not a place to travel if you are looking for anything truly inexpensive. Much of what you might think of as cheap tourist stuff is much more expensive in Singapore than it is in Indonesia or in Malaysia. That isn't to say that you can't get Singapore-specific swag for cheap prices, but if you want to find low-cost mementos, don't plan on a shopping trip in Singapore. That said, there was some great stuff to be found anyways with a few notable locations to visit. Chinatown is one location for some fun shopping and good eats, but beware, what you think might be a simple lunch can easily climb close to $100 US. What I saw of Little India didn't have all that much to recommend it, but Haji Lane is a wonderfully kitchy/hipster place for those looking to find something more unique or special.
We visited the Art Science Museum while we were there too, and were lucky enough to see three different traveling exhibits. First was a display of 50 of the best National Geographic photos ever taken. From the girl in Afghanistan to Jane Goodall, the photos were enlarged and well curated to display them without interference from other photos. Second, was a mummy exhibit on loan from the British Museum of National History. Again, the exhibit was well curated and took visitors on a trip through the mummification process and showed a very good 3D movie of CT scans of the mummy. Finally, and surprisingly our favorite exhibit, was a wonderful display on the works of Charles and Ray Eames. From their early days before being married, through the end of their lives, the exhibit showed many of the different items they created. The famous Eames Chair. The Eames Deck of Cards and the Hang Everything. Some of the different houses they built, and a few of the movies they made. All in the service of their vision and process. All-in-all, it was inspiring and educational, without being in the slightest bit boring or tedious.
Looking forward, I am now less than 80 days from leaving Indonesia and preparing or my next assignment. It has been a tour filled with joy and laughter, tears and sorrow, victories and failures, and a whole hell of a lot of learning. I am not the same person that arrived here in 2011, and I am thankful for that. I have a clearer vision of who I am and what I want, and my goals for the next few years of my life are clearer. My life has even bigger changes in store for me, more great adventures, and further opportunities for me to dance across the world.
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